Dutch healthcare giant Royal Philips has agreed to acquire Respiratory Technologies (RespirTech), a St. Paul, Minnesota-based maker of innovative airway clearance devices for patients with bronchiectasis and other respiratory illnesses.
RespirTech, founded in 2004, offers a robust clinical support program for managing respiratory patients at home called inCourage System technology.
InCourage features a proprietary design based on an inflatable vest, attached to a compressor, that is worn by the patient at home. The system uses high-frequency chest compression (HFCC), in which pressurized air creates compressions that loosen and mobilize accumulated mucus, leading to its removal from the lungs and respiratory airways.
The vest therapy has been shown to be effective and safe, and RespirTech has established a proprietary registry of more than 5,000 patients with bronchiectasis or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) who are using inCourage systems.
Collected data in the registry includes patient-reported changes in lung function, hospitalizations, antibiotic us, and quality of life after initiating vest therapy.
Philips, headquartered in Amsterdam, makes air purification, airway clearance, oxygen delivery and oxygen ventilation devices; it also offers monitoring services. The RespirTech program will strengthen Philips’ ambition to deliver cost-effective and clinically focused services.
RespirTech will also sell its single, patient-use, ClearChest comfort vests and bands, created for hospital settings.
Philips will likely complete the expansion of its respiratory care portfolio in the next few months, subject to customary closing conditions. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.
“With this transaction, we will broaden our portfolio with a proven therapy to enable patients with chronic respiratory disorders manage their condition and receive the care they need in the home,” John Frank, Philips’ business leader of sleep and respiratory care, said in a press release. “RespirTech’s vest therapy can be applied to a range of respiratory conditions and various neuromuscular diseases, where patients’ compromised abilities to cough often leads to serious respiratory complications and associated higher care costs.”